IRS Written Determinations
Free IRS private letter rulings, technical advice memoranda, and Chief Counsel advice with plain-English summaries and the official IRS release on every page.
No determinations match these filters
Try fewer or different words, check the spelling, or clear the filters to browse everything.
PLR 200644049: Foundation scholarship procedures receive advance approval
A private foundation planned scholarships for academically strong students with financial need and an affiliation with a country in the southeastern Mediterranean or Balkans. Its committee would…
Determination 200644048: Trust denied charity exemption after founder loans and payments
A trust formed to support public charities applied for section 501(c)(3) exemption and supporting organization status. The IRS found that it had lent substantial funds to its founders, paid…
Determination 200644047: Captive insurer denied small insurance company exemption
A captive insurer owned by a medical services company applied for the section 501(c)(15) exemption for 2002 and 2003. It issued one policy in each year, naming its parent company and listing…
Determination 200644046: Charity exemption revoked after missing returns and records
The IRS retroactively revoked an organization's section 501(c)(3) exemption effective October 1, 2000. The final letter says the organization had not established that it operated exclusively for…
Determination 200644045: Health insurance purchasing alliance denied charity exemption
A regional purchasing alliance applied for section 501(c)(3) exemption. It pooled small businesses and other employers so their workers and families could buy health coverage through a health…
Determination 200644044: Manager of community investment entities denied charity exemption
A nonprofit affiliated with a community development financial institution sought section 501(c)(3) exemption and supporting organization status. It planned to manage for-profit entities involved in…
Determination 200644043: Producer marketing group denied agricultural exemption
An agricultural producer group applied for exemption under section 501(c)(5). Its program included quality certification, branded products, marketing contracts, and sales work for member producers…
PLR 200644042: Hospice grants to patients preserve charity exemption
A hospital-affiliated public charity held unspent donations intended to support the hospital's former hospice program. After the hospital stopped operating that program, the charity proposed grants…
PLR 200644041: Foundation division after divorce receives transfer tax rulings
A private foundation formed by a married couple proposed dividing its assets roughly equally between two new foundations after the couple divorced. The IRS ruled that the transfers would be a…
PLR 200644040: Scholarship funding set-aside qualifies as a foundation distribution
A private foundation asked to count funds set aside in 2004 for a scholarship and training program as a qualifying distribution for that tax year. An unrelated public charity would administer the…
PLR 200644039: Irrigation cooperative reorganization preserves exemption
An exempt irrigation cooperative planned to create a second class of stock tied to its interest in another organization. It would also transfer its water, facilities, and other assets, apart from…
PLR 200644038: Restricted school program grants avoid foundation self-dealing
A private foundation proposed funding learning centers run by a public charity. A foundation director's spouse worked for the charity in fundraising, raising a question about whether the grants…
PLR 200644037: Historic preservation groups may merge without losing charity status
A section 501(c)(3) historic preservation charity proposed absorbing an affiliated section 501(c)(4) neighborhood group. The groups shared staff and ran overlapping programs involving historic…
PLR 200644036: Neighborhood group merger preserves both organizations' tax treatment
A section 501(c)(4) neighborhood group requested rulings on merging into an affiliated section 501(c)(3) historic preservation charity. The groups shared staff and volunteers and carried out…
PLR 200644035: Employee-family scholarship procedures avoid taxable expenditure tax
A private foundation proposed sponsoring scholarships for children or relatives of a company's employees through an independent public charity's academic competition. The charity's separate…
PLR 200644034: Independent finalist competition passes scholarship grant review
A private foundation proposed scholarships for children or relatives of a company's employees through an independent public charity's academic competitions. Awards would go only to finalists,…
PLR 200644033: IRA rollover deadline waived after institution sent funds to wrong account
An individual agreed to move an investment between financial institutions, but one institution mistakenly used an IRA withdrawal form and placed the proceeds into a non-IRA mutual fund account. The…
PLR 200644032: Church plan qualifies as a 403(b)(9) retirement income program
A tax-exempt organization took over a retirement plan when employees of two related organizations moved to it. The IRS had previously ruled that the plan was a church plan, subject to adoption of…
PLR 200644031: Spouse may roll over IRA proceeds received through the estate
A deceased IRA owner named his estate as the account beneficiary. His surviving spouse was the estate's sole executor and sole residuary beneficiary, and the estate had enough other assets to pay…
PLR 200644030: IRS waives one-day IRA rollover delay after spouse's death
An IRA owner rolled over part of a distribution on time. His wife died during the 60-day rollover period, and he deposited the remaining amount into another IRA one day after the deadline. He said…
PLR 200644029: IRS waives IRA rollover deadline after annuity status was missed
A widow liquidated two annuities on the advice of her financial adviser and deposited the proceeds in an investment account. She did not know one annuity was an IRA, and neither the adviser nor the…
PLR 200644028: Spouse may transfer IRA through trust to her own IRA
A deceased IRA owner named a trust for his surviving spouse as the IRA beneficiary. The spouse was the trust's sole trustee and could direct distributions of its principal and income to herself. She…
PLR 200644027: Multiemployer pension plan receives conditional funding extension
A multiemployer defined benefit plan in the unionized supermarket industry had suffered severe investment losses. Its representatives said that, without funding relief, employers would face steep…
PLR 200644026: Funding waivers denied because company's hardship was not temporary
A company asked the IRS to waive its pension plan's minimum funding standards for the 2004 and 2005 plan years. After losses and a change in business direction, it had made little progress toward…
PLR 200644025: IRS extends pension liability amortization by ten years
A contract manufacturer asked for more time to amortize specified unfunded liabilities in its single employer pension plan. The plan had stopped accruing benefits, while an economic downturn,…
PLR 200644024: Multiemployer plan receives conditional ten-year amortization extension
A multiemployer pension plan sought a ten-year extension to amortize unfunded liabilities for the plan year beginning July 1, 2003. After an investment loss, its trustees had scheduled employer…
PLR 200644023: Pension excise tax waived if distress termination is approved
A company withdrew its request for a waiver of the pension plan's minimum funding standard for the 2005 plan year. The IRS closed that request and conditionally waived the 100 percent excise tax…
PLR 200644022: Son cannot use his life expectancy for inherited IRA distributions
An IRA owner named a trust as beneficiary. After the trust was reformed, his wife received its IRA distributions and could request more; any balance left at her death would pass to her descendants.…
PLR 200644021: Insurance group may preserve deferred gains in consolidation
A foreign parent proposed to combine two US consolidated groups that included life insurers, reinsurers, and other companies. The transaction would merge the two US holding companies and transfer…
CCA 200644020: Trust recognizes IRA income when paying fixed charitable gifts
A decedent's trust owed fixed dollar gifts to three charities and satisfied those gifts by assigning them portions of the decedent's IRA. Chief Counsel advised that using IRA interests to pay those…
PLR 200644019: FCC ordered broadcast equipment replacement qualifies as an involuntary conversion
A television broadcaster had to stop using certain news gathering equipment when the FCC reassigned part of its broadcast spectrum to address interference with public safety communications. The FCC…
CCA 200644018: Wage withholding credits belong to the income recipient
Chief Counsel addressed payments for employees' services that employers had sent to trusts, estates, partnerships, or S corporations while withholding income tax. Under section 31, the credit…
CCA 200644017: Armored car service reports large cash pickups for a customer
A tobacco wholesaler hired an independent armored car service to collect a customer's cash payments, which regularly exceeded $10,000, and deposit them directly into the wholesaler's bank account.…
CCA 200644016: Ordinary income received from a decedent counts in an estate's distributable income
Chief Counsel addressed estates that received ordinary income in respect of a decedent, such as IRA or deferred compensation payments, and distributed cash to beneficiaries in the same tax year. The…
PLR 200644015: Splitting a trust isolates its generation skipping tax exemption
A family trust had a generation skipping transfer tax inclusion ratio of 20.7%, meaning it was partly exempt. The beneficiaries proposed to divide it on a fractional basis into two trusts with the…
PLR 200644014: Government deferred compensation plan qualifies under section 457
A political subdivision asked whether its deferred compensation plan and related trust met section 457 requirements. The IRS ruled that the submitted plan was an eligible section 457(b) plan.…
PLR 200644013: S corporation's charitable trust payments may carry built in gain
An S corporation that previously was a C corporation proposed to contribute real estate to a charitable remainder unitrust, which would sell it during the corporation's ten year built in gain…
PLR 200644012: Planned share repurchases do not change a section 355 ownership test
After completing a corporate distribution covered by earlier IRS rulings, a company considered open market repurchases of its common shares. Its stock classes differed in voting rights, but holders…
PLR 200644011: Late tax year change request receives filing relief
A taxpayer intended to switch from an August 31 tax year end to December 31 but missed the deadline for filing Form 1128. The form and relief request were filed within 90 days after the due date.…
PLR 200644010: Internal distributions and asset transfer receive reorganization rulings
A company asked the IRS to supplement an earlier ruling on a planned business separation and merger after revising its internal restructuring steps. The IRS reaffirmed the earlier rulings and held…
PLR 200644009: Investment funds receive more time to elect consent dividends
Three regulated investment funds distributed prior year earnings only to holders of their original share class after adding a second class. Concerned that the distributions might be preferential and…
PLR 200644008: Family company recapitalization, mergers, and property transfers qualify for nonrecognition
A corporation proposed to exchange some shareholders' nonvoting shares for voting shares, merge six holding companies into itself, and receive property from two shareholders for additional nonvoting…
PLR 200644007: Gift donors receive more time to allocate generation skipping tax exemption
Two donors transferred partnership interests to a trust with potential generation skipping transfers and elected to split gifts on their gift tax returns. Their accountant inadvertently failed to…
PLR 200644006: Fund's late dividend election treated as timely
A fund intended to elect under section 855 to treat a dividend distributed after year end as paid in the prior tax year. Its accounting firm failed to file the expected extension request on Form…
PLR 200644005: S corporation status restored after stock went to a partnership
An S corporation transferred some shares to a partnership, which could not be an eligible S corporation shareholder. The IRS concluded that the transfer terminated the S election on that date. The…
PLR 200644004: Parent company receives time to file dual consolidated loss forms
A corporate group claimed losses from two foreign entities treated as hybrid separate units for U.S. tax purposes. Its return preparer omitted the elections, agreements, and annual certification…
PLR 200644003: Equalized trust changes preserve gift and generation skipping tax treatment
A trustee proposed to change two trusts created before September 25, 1985, so each daughter's family could pursue its own investment strategy. A distribution between the trusts would equalize the…
PLR 200644002: Trust modification leaves gift and generation skipping tax status intact
A trustee sought to modify a family trust established before September 25, 1985, alongside a similar trust for another daughter's family, to allow separate investment strategies. The proposed…
PLR 200644001: Donor receives more time to opt out of automatic GST exemption allocation
A donor created a grantor retained annuity trust and intended to elect out of automatic allocation of generation skipping transfer tax exemption. The estate tax inclusion period ended when the…
Determination 200643007: Seller funded down payment program denied charitable exemption
An applicant for section 501(c)(3) recognition planned to provide homebuyers with down payment gifts funded mainly by payments from participating home sellers. Sellers paid a fee and agreed to make…
PLR 200643006: IRA rollover deadline waiver denied after funds went into a regular account
Two IRA owners withdrew funds intending to move them into certificates of deposit, but put the money in a joint account outside an IRA. They said they misunderstood the rollover rules and their…
PLR 200643005: Direct transfers between government pension plans avoid immediate tax
A state pension system for police officers and firefighters proposed to accept assets directly from another state plan and local money purchase plans as employers and members moved to its benefit…
PLR 200643004: Bank account error earns pension rollover deadline waiver
A former employee directed benefits from two qualified plans into an IRA at a bank. Her paperwork identified the new account as an IRA, but the bank mistakenly opened it as a regular brokerage…
PLR 200643003: Misleading plan information leads to rollover deadline waiver
A person who retired on disability received a distribution from a retirement plan that included an amount eligible for an IRA rollover. She said plan personnel had led her to believe the eligible…
PLR 200643002: IRA rollover waiver granted after receiving company used a regular account
An IRA owner tried to move retirement funds to a company believed to be able to hold them in a self directed IRA. The owner told the company of the rollover intent, but it placed the money in an…
PLR 200643001: Subsidiary in liquidation remains in parent's consolidated tax group
A subsidiary being liquidated under a court order believed it still belonged to its parent's affiliated corporate group, although the parent had stopped including it in consolidated tax returns. The…
Other 200642012: IRS denies tax exemption to debt management plan seller
An organization sought recognition as a tax-exempt charity under section 501(c)(3). It marketed debt management plans and passed enrolled clients to a processing partner in exchange for a share of…
Other 200642011: IRS denies exemption to life insurer in liquidation
A life insurance company in liquidation asked the IRS to recognize it as exempt under section 501(c)(15). Its current work involved recovering assets, earning investment income, and paying…
Other 200642010: IRS denies charity status to credit repair organization
An organization offering credit repair services sought recognition as a charity under section 501(c)(3). The IRS found that customers paid an upfront fee for credit repair, while the organization's…
PLR 200642009: Affordable mobile home park will not jeopardize charity status
A housing charity planned to acquire and operate a mobile home park through an LLC it controlled. The park could not meet the IRS's low-income housing safe harbor because income certifications were…
What these documents are
- Private letter rulings (PLRs): A taxpayer asked the IRS to rule on a planned transaction before doing it. The ruling shows exactly how the IRS applied the Code to those facts.
- Technical advice memoranda (TAMs): The IRS National Office answering a question raised during an audit or other proceeding.
- Chief Counsel advice (CCAs): IRS lawyers advising their own field staff on how to apply the law.
- Determination letters: Rulings on exempt-organization matters, such as whether an organization qualifies under § 501(c)(3) or a foundation's grant procedures pass § 4945.
- Not precedent, still useful: Under 26 U.S.C. § 6110(k)(3) none of these can be cited as precedent. They remain the best public window into how the IRS actually rules on facts like yours, and practitioners read them for exactly that.